Stacey Yvonne Abrams (/ˈeɪbrəmz/;[1] born December 9, 1973) is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017.[2] A member of the Democratic Party, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression, in 2018.[3] A voting rights activist,[4] her efforts have been widely credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia,[5] including in the 2020 presidential election, where Joe Biden narrowly won the state, and in Georgia's 2020–2021 U.S. Senate election and special election, which gave Democrats control over the Senate.
Abrams was the Democratic nominee in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, becoming the first African-American female major-party gubernatorial nominee in the United States.[6] She lost the election to Republican candidate Brian Kemp, but refused to concede, accusing Kemp of engaging in voter suppression as Georgia Secretary of State.[7] In February 2019, Abrams became the first African-American woman to deliver a response to the State of the Union address. On December 1, 2021, she announced she would run for governor again in the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial election.[8]
Abrams has also found success as an author of both fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction books, Our Time Is Now and Lead from the Outside, were New York Times best sellers. Outside of politics, Abrams has published eight fiction books, using the pen name Selena Montgomery until 2021. While Justice Sleeps was released on May 11, 2021 under her real name. Abrams also wrote a children's book, Stacey's Extraordinary Words, released in December 2021.
In 2006, Abrams ran for the 89th district for the Georgia House of Representatives, following JoAnn McClinton's announcement that she would not seek reelection. Abrams ran in the Democratic Party primary election against former state legislator George Maddox and political operative Dexter Porter. She outraised her two opponents and won the primary election with 51% of the vote, avoiding a runoff election.[25]
Abrams in 2012
Abrams represented House District 89, which includes portions of the City of Atlanta and unincorporated DeKalb County,[26] covering the communities of Candler Park, Cedar Grove, Columbia, Druid Hills, Edgewood, Highland Park, Kelley Lake, Kirkwood, Lake Claire, South DeKalb, Toney Valley, and Tilson.[27] She served on the Appropriations, Ethics, Judiciary Non-Civil, Rules, and Ways & Means committees.[28]
In November 2010, the Democratic caucus elected Abrams to succeed DuBose Porter as minority leader over Virgil Fludd.[29] Abrams's first major action as minority leader was to cooperate with Republican governor Nathan Deal's administration to reform the HOPE Scholarship program. She co-sponsored the 2011 legislation that preserved the HOPE program by decreasing the scholarship amount paid to Georgia students and funded a 1% low-interest loan program for students.[30]
According to Time magazine, Abrams "can credibly boast of having single-handedly stopped the largest tax increase in Georgia history."[31] In 2011 Abrams argued that a Republican proposal to cut income taxes while increasing a tax on cable service would lead to a net increase in taxes paid by most people.[31] She performed an analysis of the bill that showed that 82% of Georgians would see net tax increases, and left a copy of the analysis on the desk of every House legislator.[31] The bill subsequently failed.[31]
Abrams with John Lewis in 2017
Abrams also worked with Deal on criminal-justice reforms that reduced prison costs without increasing crime,[31] and with Republicans on the state's biggest-ever public transportation funding package.[31]
On August 25, 2017, Abrams resigned from the General Assembly to focus on her gubernatorial campaign.[32]
